My brief encounter with other humans in the coffee shop this morning, away from the (generally enjoyable) solitude of my home working, was a touch intense.

The wife of a very quiet man chose to unleash a torrent of anger about the state of the Nation, from Muslims to out of work scroungers. Fortunately, I do not meet too many people like that. To say that she was dour would be pretty accurate.

By contrast, their replacement was a chirpy Albanian, who vied neck and neck with me to dominate the conversation. No, this does him a dis-service. He was a Ph.D. student in business and had a lot of great ideas to tell me about. We discussed politics mainly, and in particular how we as a nation have lost sight of what has made us great in the past. He said that manufacturing has all but gone from these shores, and for some reason, he mentioned bridge building as an example.

Mere minutes after returning home, I listened to Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2 and caught mid way through a speech saying that we should return to manufacturing ways, also cited bridge building as a first example!

How odd is that?